College Campuses: It's The Money, Not The Free Speech And Inquiry, That's The Bottom Line
Related to my recent posts on the injustice done to now former Sci-Am blogs editor Bora Zivkovic, I got a bunch of email this past weekend from academics telling me about the chill on free speech on campus. Two of these people connected the diminishing of free speech to the money.
To explain, Glenn Reynolds has written about the education bubble and how the vast sums of money available in loans has caused tuitions to rise and to break students. His book is The Higher Education Bubble
I haven't found the time yet in between my weekly science reading to get to Glenn's book, but it seems that the money has also led to administrations to act less like college administrations and more like very bottom-line-concerned corporations, leading to these chills on free speech. It is, in short, about the money.
Their greatest concern is not about free inquiry but about bad press for the college and administration and squashing anyone's free speech that might lead to that.
Related, by Greg Lukianoff, the president of campus free speech defender theFIRE.org: The Campus surveillance state.
Greg's book: Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate.
The description of the book on Amazon points out the cost of the college speech stifling to all of us:
For over a generation, shocking cases of censorship at America's colleges and universities have taught students the wrong lessons about living in a free society. Drawing on a decade of experience battling for freedom of speech on campus, First Amendment lawyer Greg Lukianoff reveals how higher education fails to teach students to become critical thinkers: by stifling open debate, our campuses are supercharging ideological divisions, promoting groupthink, and encouraging an unscholarly certainty about complex issues....This culture of censorship is bleeding into the larger society. ...Intolerance for dissent and debate on today's campus threatens the freedom of every citizen and makes us all just a little bit dumber.
If you are an academic, please feel free to comment here anonymously. I will not reveal or even look at your IP or anything else. Please also feel free to send me your suggestions on this via email at the "contact" address above (by my masthead).
I'm meeting with Greg Lukianoff in a few weeks to discuss this climate and see whether something can be done about it. Regular commenters here are, for the most part, very smart. It would help to have your ideas.
And remember: this is massive money and now-entrenched and powerful administrations we're talking about.
One thought I had is to use the Obama admin's Dept. of Education. They put out a directive diminishing due process on campus (especially for men), and it's working. Perhaps it's possible to get them to put out some directive about free speech.
it seems that the money has also led to administrations to act less like college administrations and more like very bottom-line-concerned corporations, leading to these chills on free speech. It is, in short, about the money.
I don't mean to be flip or cynical, but: This is news?
Kevin at November 7, 2013 7:51 AM
"One thought I had is to use the Obama admin's Dept. of Education." Amy
whul, shyeah... except for the part where the chill on free speech is PRECISELY what they want.
Who's speech is being chilled? Not Correct Thinking left wing stuff...
Dunno, the thesis is workable that because the money is there, THEN there is an incentive to ruthlessly prosecute the limitation of speech... HOWEVER.
There is already a built in bias in both the professor ranks, and in the administration that CERTAIN kinds of Correct Thinking speech is to be amplified.
so this is just extending that...
SwissArmyD at November 7, 2013 9:38 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2013/11/07/college_campuse_1.html#comment-4038060">comment from SwissArmyDBut the overall call for free speech and inquiry could be made to appeal. There are popular and famous professors who are on the left in their politics who could lead in pressing the administration for this.
Civil liberties is an area where left and right do come together.
Amy Alkon
at November 7, 2013 9:45 AM
Funny you mention this..
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2013/11/student-newspaper-editor-extensively.html
&
http://host.madison.com/daily-cardinal/news/campus/dean-of-students-university-health-services-address-campus-rape-culture/article_e42e4a34-4689-11e3-9bb7-0019bb2963f4.html
Here you have the absurdity of the Univ. Wisconsin-Madison dean of students ensuring the student body that they actually live in an active rape culture on campus and can take comfort in the fact that the skepticism of certain students towards the existence of a robust culture of rape on campus is unwarranted and only proves that they are definitely living in a 'rape culture'. Their campus has precisely the 'norms' that abet and excuse rape.
* the female dominated administration has not commented on why they have chosen to engender a rape culture on campus.
Umberto at November 7, 2013 11:03 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2013/11/07/college_campuse_1.html#comment-4038403">comment from KevinI don't mean to be flip or cynical, but: This is news?
People don't really put it in these terms, first of all.
And don't be "flip or cynical" -- offer an idea for a solution.
Amy Alkon
at November 7, 2013 1:03 PM
Comrades,
The Party of the People and the People's Leader will tell you what to think and say. Nobody should worry about individual thoughts anymore.
Stinky the Clown at November 7, 2013 1:56 PM
Oh, I think the solution is coming, and it is not going to be pretty.
My guess is at least half the colleges in the US will either close or be reduced in size and scope in the next ten to 15 years.
When people become unwilling to borrow money to get a degree in diversity studies, the diversity studies department will go away, or the university will fund it anyway until they are so far in the red, that the whole institution folds.
I have good friends who are college professors, in large public universities, and the legislature has a big say in what departments get funded. We can already see the fall out, as their extremely lackluster arts, music, and theater departments, are dying a slow death.
The administration will try and save their administrative bloat by getting rid of academic programs, but like a restaurant cutting the menu and the hours, it wont do any good in the long run.
Isab at November 7, 2013 1:59 PM
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